Mod Project/Game Project

[TheReferee]

@@TheReferee can you describe what modding or game development experience you and each of your current team members has had in the past? And what mods you (and your team members) have worked on in the past which has been released?

I am not a modder that is why i am looking for a programmer. I am a level designer mainly and one of my partners is a graphic artist. we have no experience working on mods but we have worked on other solo projects on a smaller scale.

[katanamaru]

I am not a modder that is why i am looking for a programmer. I am a level designer mainly and one of my partners is a graphic artist. we have no experience working on mods but we have worked on other solo projects on a smaller scale.

Just so you know. Every modder here just read:

"I don't know how to mod. I just want someone to do the work for me. My buddy can do photoshop, but he hasn't even reskinned a model yet."

 

Our response is going to be:

First try to make a mod of some type that doesn't require a coder. If you are the level designer then you need to make a map that utilizes scripts so you have knowledge to contribute and a better way to articulate what you need a coder to do. Your partner needs to start with some reskins. Choose an easy model to reskin like the Anakin model, Kyle, or a Reborn.

Once you can show you've learned how to contribute then a coder may be interested it contributing to your mod.

[TheReferee]

None of you have even entertained the thought of this idea... the only thing that has come from you guys is negative things that shoot down all my thoughts... I am not looking for someone to do all my work for me I’m looking for someone to conduct a project with and do something that tones of people have expressed an interest in and yet no one has taken action to do. I am trying to be the leader that pushes people to do something rather than talk about it…. I now get that jkhub is more or less just a jahub… So I will take my plan elsewhere and hope to find someone that is willing to help…

I have talked to a couple programmers already and they have told me that taking the jk2 source code and making a new launcher with a new protocol so that this jk project could run on its own server list and have its own exe would be rather easy and everything else after that would just take time and some planning which is what I will start asking programmers for rather than what I started this thread asking for. I also found out that some of the things I wanted to do are harder than I thought so we scraped those ideas and are more or less just focused on finding someone that can take jk2/jk3 and make essentially a copy for right now until we can edit into a full game.

 

Like I said I don’t want a programmer to do all the work but this has been an idea of mine for a while and I was just trying to find someone that could make the dream a reality. I just wish this community was more open minded….tbh

[MoonDog]

Well so far, you've pitched some sort of standalone competitive saber thing. With you being a leader of some sort.

 

Do you have any documentation, or evidence of planning? How about a real well put together pitch? You are going to be required to completely provide all of your own original assets in order to do standalone.

 

Do you have any current evidence that you have people with the capability to do so? Level design documents, screenshots of prototype levels, art assets, models, sounds, etc.. etc... etc... ?

 

You can hardly be surprised if no one responds favorably to a pitch that seems sort of half-hearted and in the clouds with nothing to back it up currently.

[Circa]

It's not that people aren't open minded, they just want to know that they won't be joining a list cause or doing all the work.

[TheReferee]

For right now all I want is someone to take jk2 and make it a standalone jk4 like I said previously. Until I talked to some programmers and got their thoughts I wasn't unaware of how much I was asking... now that I understand that I have lowered my desires... I have proof of plans and have concepts drawn up and done but I do not want to post them for everyone to see and steal... if someone wants to take my idea or thinks that what I’m am trying to do is half way interesting then I will share more of my plans but none of you have even expressed interest in anything I have said so why bother post concepts if you clearly think it’s a bad idea....

Here is my idea now that I have had time to look over everything and take what you guys have told me into consideration.

I would like to take jk2 and make it a standalone like I said before. From there I personally am going to start by making a map where everything can be tested and played on. I will also be talking to my modeler about some ideas for skins that I will than add one or two into the stand alone jk2 which I will call jk4 for right now. I will than hand that model off to a skinner so he can give us a nice looking model to play around with. I will figure out where I am going to get textures made from and sounds, blah blah blah…. After we have a map and a character to play with and some nice textures to walk around on I will start to talk to the programmer about making some gametype changes and adding some new gametypes to jk4. I have trashed the 1.02 and 1.04 idea and have since then decided to leave it as 1.04 for right now and change that later down the road. At this point I just want to focus on making the game playable to some extent and then go from there where ever the programmer and the team decided to go from our list of possible game ideas and what not that we already have drawn out. This project will not be fast, it will not be easy, and I am aware of this… I do not want an easy 2 sec project that I can say “Hey look what I made in 2 hours”…. I want something I can say “Hey look what I spent a year on” and be proud of that….

If there is a programmer out there that is even a little interested in this I would be more than happy to talk about my goals with them personally and I will show them all of my partners past work as well as mine. I am not looking for someone to make a whole new game by them self I want to help and I plan on doing just as much as I ask my programmer to do…. What do you have to lose by taking that first step and expressing interest…?

[MoonDog]

Wall of text, tldr.

 

 

Come up with an organized pitch wish visual aides. Jacob Minkoff from Naughty Dog has a couple really good templates you could look at on his portfolio site.

 

http://jacobminkoff.com/personal-work/

 

If you had a good production document that shows your creativity and organizational skills, I think it'd be a great boon in your search for contributors.

[katanamaru]

I read it.

 

Make your map first then. If you do that and get your partner to start making skins then you could impress a coder to join you. If you can't get a map and skin in basic JA then there is no reason to believe you can do so in a new JK4 game. If you can't map and your partner can't skin then there is nothing a coder could do to help you.

Right now it sounds like you plan to map a single map and then start telling others what to do. No one wants to work in that environment FYI.

 

As far as 'stealing your ideas' you'll have to make your code available to the public under GPL. Unless I misunderstand that.

[eezstreet]

Y U GET RID OF 1.02 IDEA

I am most unsettled by this.

[TheReferee]

I read it.

 

Make your map first then. If you do that and get your partner to start making skins then you could impress a coder to join you. If you can't get a map and skin in basic JA then there is no reason to believe you can do so in a new JK4 game. If you can't map and your partner can't skin then there is nothing a coder could do to help you.

Right now it sounds like you plan to map a single map and then start telling others what to do. No one wants to work in that environment FYI.

 

As far as 'stealing your ideas' you'll have to make your code available to the public under GPL. Unless I misunderstand that.

We have already found ways to work around the GPL and are constantly changing everything in hopes of not running into that problem. We also have plans to take this idea to an actual lawyer and have him tell us what must be done.

I am the team leader and so I have goals that I would like to meet, I am also the level designer for the team, I will not stop working after I finish one map and nor will anyone on the team stop after one thing is finished. Everyone that I have right now is self-motivated and I do not have to jump on them to do something nor will I at this stage in development.

I am sorry if it sounds like I want to boss everyone around that is not my intention.

 

Y U GET RID OF 1.02 IDEA

I am most unsettled by this.

We have taken out the 1.02 idea for right now because when i talked to other programmers they told me it would take a lot of time and effort to make it into a server based change (like a 1 or a 2 in the server.cfg).

Right now we are focused on getting the game stand alone and we have already found a way to take jk2 and make a copy of it with its own exe and its own masterserver list.

We have talked about improving the combat system because right now everything about the combat system is random and can’t be predicted in any way, we want to change that and make it more predictable.

[eezstreet]

We have already found ways to work around the GPL and are constantly changing everything in hopes of not running into that problem. We also have plans to take this idea to an actual lawyer and have him tell us what must be done.

I am the team leader and so I have goals that I would like to meet, I am also the level designer for the team, I will not stop working after I finish one map and nor will anyone on the team stop after one thing is finished. Everyone that I have right now is self-motivated and I do not have to jump on them to do something nor will I at this stage in development.

I am sorry if it sounds like I want to boss everyone around that is not my intention.

 

LOL you think you can get around the GPL?

If you use -any-, -any- source code from Quake3, JKA or JK2, then your project must be automatically made into GPL. You aren't simply going to get around it, forget it.

[TheReferee]

Yeah i admit i have more or less ran into a wall with this project because of the GPL....

[Raz0r]

Why? Why is GPL an issue?

[TheReferee]

Well what I've been told is that we are sort of appertaining in a grey area of legal business. We have however decided to continue and make the final product open source and free, which should keep us from running into any legal problems.

[eezstreet]

Well what I've been told is that we are sort of appertaining in a grey area of legal business. We have however decided to continue and make the final product open source and free, which should keep us from running into any legal problems.

Yeah. I'm not sure what the GPL would give you issues with, other than the need to make your project open source, which is a legitimate complaint from some.

[MoonDog]

Well what I've been told is that we are sort of appertaining in a grey area of legal business. We have however decided to continue and make the final product open source and free, which should keep us from running into any legal problems.

 

Sounds like a good choice. Are you still decided on going standalone? I know there is a list of legal problems when one decides to do something of that scope. ( Such as manufacturing all your own assets. ) That in itself is a gigantic time murderer for a small team.

[TheReferee]

we are going stand alone. I am already started on my assets and will be cutting down on the amount of stuff in there because we are not bringing a lot of it over (guns, items, some other things). We are going to make 1 map with all new textures and skyboxes and all that good stuff. 2 playable characters and we are re doing the sabers to swords for now because we don't want anything to do with star wars in case of legal reasons. we are always looking for help of course xP. The standalone version should be out with in this month i would imagine, it will not have all new assets but it is where we will start to post our progress.

Yeah. I'm not sure what the GPL would give you issues with, other than the need to make your project open source, which is a legitimate complaint from some.

We think we have a way to counter act that but we are still pounding out the details right now.

[eezstreet]

Frankly though, I kinda doubt people would wind up forking your project. Maybe they'll contribute bug fixes, but I suspect that people are going to be interested in new content like maps and stuff more.

[TheReferee]

Frankly though, I kinda doubt people would wind up forking your project. Maybe they'll contribute bug fixes, but I suspect that people are going to be interested in new content like maps and stuff more.

that is what we are hopping will happen.

[Circa]

How will this be a JK4 if it's not Star Wars related?

[MoonDog]

How will this be a JK4 if it's not Star Wars related?

 

Maybe he means a spiritual successor to the combat? I'm not sure.

[TheReferee]

That is what we are calling it for right now just to make life easier we don't really want to come up with a snappy name xP. It will, for now at least, have code from jk2 until we can get a programmer in there and change some things around for us but assets will all be different.

[TheReferee]

Anyone know how to make new font files to avoid copy rights? Currently in jk2 the font is fontdat.

[Circa]

Anyone know how to make new font files to avoid copy rights? Currently in jk2 the font is fontdat.

This will help you.

 

https://jkhub.org/files/file/371-jafont/

 

[TheReferee]

Another question: anyone have access to a Visual Studio 6.0 link/download?